Nationalism

The Twilight of Romanticism

Outside European Mainstream

• Poland, Bohemia, Norway, Denmark, Russia

• People desired political freedom and cultural expression

• Composers with limited training most likely to build harmonies and sounds of folk music in their works.

• Nationalist music is the blending of folk and art music

Bedrich Smetana

• 1824-1884• First Bohemian with

international reputation• Father master brewer in

service to Count Waldstein

• Smetana public debut 6• 14- school in Prague• Music life of Prague

vibrant

Bedrich Smetana

• Father recalled him from Prague to finish his schooling

• Eked out living as a piano teacher

• 1848 Prague Revolution – helped man the barricades and wrote patriotic marches

Bedrich Smetana

• 1856 taught in Sweden

• 1859 Austrians defeated by Napoleon III – return to Prague

• Slow to achieve recognition – Liszt

• Nationalist operas starting 1863

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDjE6H5HqWk

Antonin Dvorak• 1841-1904

• Father was butcher and inn-keeper

• Encouraged Antonin in music

• 18 violinist of Czech theater of Prague

• New World Symphony

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuqyfEyNXQo

Edvard Greig• 1843-1907

• Norway’s Greatest Composer

• Mother taught piano when he was 6

• Entered Leipzig conservatory and studied with Mendelssohn and Schumann

Edvard Greig

• Peer Gynt Suite

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfJELhPIYQI

Carl Nielsen

• 1865-1931

• Denmark

• Six symphonies

• violinist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHiu2FPnLBg

Russia

• Serfdom

• Peter the Great – opened Russia to the West. Italian opera and western music flowered in St. Petersburg and in Moscow

• By the second half of 18C Russians were tired of anything missing the Russian spirit

• Mikhail Glinka – Father of Russian music

Mikhail Glinka

• 1804-1857

• Considered the father of Russian music

• Government official

• Composed as a hobby

• Life for a Tsar

• One of “The Five”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df3i3srpFLo

Alexander Borodin

• 1833-1887

• Scientist

• Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor

• More than five years to complete

• One of “The Five”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmfTqVqngO8

Mily Balakirev

• 1837-1910

• King Lear – incidental music; Islamey piano concerto

• Self appointed leader of “The Five”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz_iA8TSDtI

Modest Musorgsky

• 1839-1881• Struggled to complete

operas• Boris Godunov,

Khovanshina• R.K. and

Shostokovich finished them

• Avoided Western influence

Modest Musorgsky• Pictures at an

Exhibition is most recognized work

• Family had both nobility and serfs

• 1861 serfs liberated- M had to take on civil jobs – difficulty

• Died at 42 in military • alcoholism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsvpFU7KY7E

Peter Tchaikovsky

• 1840-1893

• Embraced Western influence, learned from Rubinstein

• Criticized by “the five”

• Most recognized works were ballet

Swan Lake Waltz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CShopT9QUzwSleeping Beauty Waltz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sb8WCPjPDs

Dance of the Sugarplum fairy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz_f9B4pPtg

Peter Tchaikovsky

• Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

• 1844-1908

• Parents realized he was gifted musically

• Learned piano at 6

• Naval Academy

• Scheherazade

• One of “The Five”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17lEx0ytE_0